Long before One Direction, and even before Take That, the lads from Boston, Massachusetts, were the ultimate boy band.

They arrived in the region on the back of hit singles like I’ll Be Loving You and Hanging Tough.

Sadly for fans, the New Kids were reduced from a five to a four-piece outfit for these gigs after singer Danny Wood pulled out, having sprained his ankle on a cuddly toy thrown on stage by a fan in Manchester. Such are the perils of boy band super-stardom!

Police, meanwhile, had sternly warned warned Tyneside’s pop-crazy teenagers not to play truant in the run-up to the concert.

American boy band New Kids On The Block who appeared at Whitley Bay Ice Rink, April 27, 1990

“The New Kids - Donnie, Danny, Jordan, Jon and Joey - will not be at the ice rink during the day”, we reported.

The Chronicle was there to review the first of the two sold-out shows in Whitley Bay.

“It was hard to tell whether they were listening to the music or just screaming.

“The heaving mass of teenage hysteria that greeted the arrival on stage of New Kids On The Block managed to sustain itself right thorough their one and a half hour set.

“A wobble of the hips here, a flash of chest there, and another dozen youngsters had to be carted off - these boys should carry a government health warning.”

Not surprisingly, the actual musical merits of the group were soon called into question.

“While the New Kids are long on teeny sex appeal, their show didn’t amount to much,” declared our man, before adding, “By the length of time they spent teasing screaming admirers between numbers, it soon became obvious that the New Kids were a bit short in the songs department.”

However, crusty old journalists aside, the 4,500 in the audience loved it.

Indeed, such was the level of excitement, St John Ambulance reported that 150 fans had been treated for fainting and hyper-ventilation within the first hour of the show.